New website to help with housing

Community Partnership of the Ozarks and the city of Springfield have announced a Friday news conference to unveil an affordable housing locator website. The website, according to a city news release, will give citizens 24/7 access to search available affordable properties in Greene, Christian and Webster counties. The website can also host listings for emergency housing in the event of a natural disaster. There will be a live demonstration of the website during the unveiling at City Government Plaza, 300 E. Central St.

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Some, like Community Partnership of the Ozarks director Janet Dankert, have spent their entire lives helping the destitute.

Others, like Parkview High School student Liz Ghan, were born into poverty.

But many, like City Manager Greg Burris, “live in a bubble” — isolated from the plight of the struggling poor, Burris said, including himself in that disconnected group.

He said: “We don’t see the level of poverty in our community.”

“We don’t really understand the impact that poverty has on all of us.”

Helping those citizens understand the pervasive — and growing — problem of poverty is among the many goals of a newly formed commission dedicated to reducing poverty in the community.

Members of the commission include local leaders in business, government and faith organizations — and Ghan.

She struggled through her early life without money, lived at the Missouri Hotel homeless shelter during elementary school and eventually found stability with her grandparents. She spoke of those travails recently in a story about her selection for the 2014 Chocolate University program.

Representatives from the NAACP, Springfield Chamber of Commerce and United Way are also on board for the commission.

Members acknowledged that many of the group’s goals — including identifying the root causes of poverty in the community — will not be easily attained.

“It won’t be a small task,” said Dankert, who first approached Burris with the idea of a commission to focus on poverty.

“We realize it’s going to take everyone to tackle this because it is such a huge issue.”

The commission, according to a draft mission statement, intends to issue an initial report in 12 months.

That report should include a plan for a “two-generational” approach in an effort to cleanly break the cycle of poverty.

According to its charge, the commission should find ways to increase employment and access to well-paying jobs, increase access to education, transportation, child care, quality foods and health care.

The group hopes to exploit best practices of other communities that have found ways to roll back poverty.

The commission is also tasked with increasing public awareness of poverty which, Dankert notes, often exists in geographical “pockets” of the community and therefore, is that much easier to ignore.

Although the Impacting Poverty Commission has not released a meeting schedule, many of the group’s members will meet with poverty expert Ruby Payne during her visit to Springfield on Tuesday and Wednesday.